According to a recent study, doctors are not prescribing women an adequate level of pain relief. Women are more prone to long-term, agonizing conditions such as arthritis, migraines and irritable bowel syndrome. It has often been assumed that a woman’s body can genetically sustain a higher level of pain than men, to help them deal with the pain of childbirth, but according to researchers, the opposite may be true.
Women typically experience recurring pains such as migraines that last longer than the opposite sex. Women also feel pain in different ways, with different symptoms for similar conditions as men. Hormones, body composition and central nervous systems means women are more susceptible to a range of painful conditions, according to experts at a conference for the International Association for the Study of Pain.
IASP President, Dr Troels Jensen:
Chronic pain affects a higher proportion of women than men, but unfortunately they are also less likely to receive treatment compared to men due to various cultural, economic and political barriers. IASP hopes to provide a voice to these women by drawing attention to this global issue as a first step towards reducing pain and suffering of women around the world.
Scientists speaking at the IASP conference in Glasgow, stated that their findings could be used to prevent thousands of sick days each year, saving the country millions of dollars. Even widely used, over-the-counter medicines such as paracetamol have less of an effect on women, it has been found. The research also indicates that many doctors fail to take women patients as seriously as men, often brushing off their symptoms as ‘psychological’.
